Kosher for Passover drive fulfils GTA need

Thornhill woman is this year’s drive chairperson

Thornhill Liberal
March 20, 2014
By Simone Joseph

For Glenda Ephron Cooper, delivering Passover food has been a sobering and eye-opening experience.

“It killed me to see the sheer poverty,” she said of her years delivering food.

But seeing the difference the special donations make in needy people’s lives was rewarding.

“To see the appreciation, it was amazing,” said the Thornhill resident. “A lot of these people are below the poverty line. You can see it. It is really very sad.”

This year, rather than continue as a volunteer delivery person, Ms Ephron Cooper is chairperson of the Passover Food Drive National Council of Jewish Women of Canada - Toronto section.

She has been delivering Passover food for five years.

The donated Passover food boxes include matzo meal, wine, candies and hagada candles.

All food donated is kosher for Passover.

The kosher food tends to be more expensive than non-kosher food, Ms Ephron Cooper said.

The food drive reaches people all over the GTA, including south to downtown, north to the top of Richmond Hill, east to Scarborough and west to Hwy. 27.

Although the National Council of Jewish Women of Canada - Toronto Section is housed in Toronto, at 4700 Bathurst St., many donations come from Vaughan, she said.

Passover is one of Judaism’s most celebrated holidays, Ms Ephron Cooper said.

Passover is a Jewish holiday commemorating the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in ancient Egypt. It commemorates the story of the Exodus in which the Israelites were freed from slavery.

When the Pharaoh freed the Israelites, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread dough to rise. In commemoration, no leavened bread is eaten during Passover. Matzo (flat unleavened bread) is eaten during Passover and it is a symbol of the holiday.

Food donation drop-off locations for the food drive include:

The Sobey’s at Bathurst and Rutherford, at Clark and Bathurst and at Durante’s No Frills at Bathurst and Centre streets plus the Longo’s at Bayview Avenue and Laureleaf Road and the Longo’s at Bathurst and Rutherford Road.

The National Council of Jewish Women of Canada will sell Passover greeting cards, drawn by children in Hebrew day schools and matzo bricks in Durante’s No Frills and at Walmart at Center and Bathurst streets.

Groups of schoolchildren will help pack the donation boxes for Passover.

This Sunday, March 23, the Masons deliver all of the food boxes to the collection points.

Call 416-633-5100 for more information.